


Coming back to the Ocean

by narukyuu



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Body Horror, Dark, Egg Laying, Feminization, Hurt Tony Stark, M/M, Merman/Human, Merpeople, Merpeople are not pretty, Monster sex, Mpreg, Non-Consensual Body Modification, Other, Pining, Rape/Non-con Elements, it's gonna get weird, pre-IM3
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-25
Updated: 2018-09-12
Packaged: 2018-12-06 22:50:06
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 9
Words: 17,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11610591
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/narukyuu/pseuds/narukyuu
Summary: Tony attracts the attention of a deep sea creature desperate to breed





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> .....Guess who is doing another KinkMeme prompt?! 
> 
> you can find it here: http://avengerkink.livejournal.com/21438.html?thread=55290302#t55290302
> 
> This is my first attempt at any kind of Mpreg, so I went for the weirdest kind.  
> I have no knowledge of actual sea life, surfing, Malibu, and writing things.
> 
> Enjoy <3

It was a good day to visit the beach.

Every day, in Tony's opinion, was a good day for the beach. Sunny days were perfect for getting a good tan, lazing about on the warm sand and bathing in the cool water. Stormy days on the other hand were perfect for his more morose moods, providing the environmental components necessary for brooding while walking on the edge of the water, or even just providing the necessary white noise required to clear his mind of stubborn thoughts that constantly raced through it. 

This day was graced by both the burning hot sun and a strong wind, the waves were too high for just the plain old bathing in the salt water. This day was a day for surfing.

Usually, Tony would've invited Rhodey to join him for this particular hobby. His friend being just as, and even more of an adrenaline junkie than he was, would've joined him without a second thought had he not been deployed somewhere in the world, saving someone from something, trying to make the Iron Patriot armor look cool or whatever. (Wasn't gonna work, War Machine was way cooler in both name and color scheme.)

So that was out of the question, and Pepper would probably deny him too, say something about her skin burning easily, and give him a few stacks of paperwork to sign, seeing that he had enough free time to think about doing anything fun.

So, Tony opted for his third option instead.

 

"Surfing?" Clint's face lit up immediately when he heard the word through the com, he hogged the camera that captured the lobby of the tower and sent the image back to Tony's home in Malibu, while the other members of their group, miraculously assembled all in one place for once, just looked at the camera nearly blankly from behind the archer’s form. "Tony, I must say I never pegged you for-"

"I wouldn't let you peg me even if you bought me dinner first, Barton. And what do you think I built a mansion above the ocean in Malibu for, if not constant access to the beach?"

Clint smirked at him, "The view? You have like five pools and a hot-tub in the house."

"And I can surf in none of them." Tony frowned. "Come on, you know we need a vacation, don't let Cap-"

The man in question lifted his eyes at the mention of his nickname. "Don’t make me the villain here just yet, I think it’s a good idea.” He said with a charming little smirk and a carefree shrug, “It’s rare that are all… um. ” His look turned to amusement when it turned to Thor, and back to the camera. “…on the same planet. We could use some bonding time.”

Tony laughed shortly at Steve’s little jab at the god of thunder. It wasn't often that they shared moments like this, and the nervousness he felt earlier about extending the invitation began to dissipate with it. "Get your swimming shorts and bikinis and hop on the Quinjet, I'll take care of the rest.”

Tony stared at the sea with betrayal filling his gut. The waves, the beautiful high waves that graced the location before were nearly gone now, the winds died down almost completely, and his surfing board stood completely useless in the sand. 

None of the others seemed too disappointed, with the exception of Clint perhaps, but he soon found his solace in playing a fierce game of beach volleyball with Natasha, Steve and surprisingly, even Bruce.

Despite his disappointment, Tony found joy in watching the sight, enjoying their glee at the small beach party he hastily arranged while waiting for them to arrive from New York. It wasn’t much for his own standards for beach parties, but certainly none of the little group would think him stingy when faced with the set up of Beach mats, tents, a fully equipped bar and tanning condiments. Cap made a point of telling him that he over-did it, because of course he would have some sort of criticism about it.

And still Tony was glad that they were enjoying themselves, even if he felt a bit of resentment at the beautiful waves that had called to him that morning and were gone so quickly as he was arranging for the supplies to arrive in time. It was such a rare opportunity, the last time he and Rhodey went surfing was… oh, well... It was a few months before…

He raised his hand unconsciously to touch the arc reactor, the feel of the smooth surface making his fingers tingle. 

He nearly forgot it was there at all. He was only briefly reminded of it when he glanced at the mirror to check how he looked in the tight, form-fitting, black with a dash of gold swimwear.

He told himself there wasn’t any special reason for choosing that particular brand, though it did accentuate the form of his ass nicely, and would he truly be showing the world Tony Stark if he didn’t dress to impress? He didn’t look too shabby, he exercised and kept a healthy diet, and he wasn’t going to let some young, handsome, amped up bunch of muscles show him up without offering his best assets as well.

Then again… the scars on his chest were ugly and tarnished the image, with every glance he spared his chest his insecurity grew and eventually, it turned bad enough that he decided to put on a shirt before greeting and welcoming the team into his home, opposite of his original intention.

He felt foolish for it now, shirt disposed of hastily on his way into the water before he noticed the lack of waves.

All of them had their own scars, most worse than his, and they weren't ashamed of them. Well, Natasha chose to wear a full swimsuit instead of a bikini, and of course she looked amazing in it just as well, Clint wore completely tacky, Hawaiian themed trunks, Bruce wore a loose shirt and, to everyone's surprise, a speedo. Thor had no swimwear, and Tony certainly didn't own anything that would fit him, but he seemed to prefer lazing about in the sun like an oversized cat anyway, so that solved itself.

Steve… Well. He was wearing simple, blue shorts. Nothing special on anyone else, but of course that on Captain America anything would look flattering. The fabric hugging the man’s flesh stretched across the thickness of his thighs and ass and just… Tony wasn't even sure if he was jealous and annoyed about being shown up – and so casually, too - or a little bit aroused. 

It didn’t take much more than seeing Steve jump to hit the ball, notice his sweaty skin taut along his abs, the almost bizarrely triangular shape of his body obscenely accentuated in its near nakedness to answer his dilemma in the most awkward way imaginable.

He was lucky that everyone was too engrossed in the game to notice before he managed to will it away.

 

Afterwards, when he was finally rid of the inconvenience straining his pants, Tony sat on the beach chair, letting the sun glaze his exposed skin as he looked at the others playing and laughing through a pair of mirrored sunglasses, trying to ignore Steve’s body in favor of analyzing strategy and chances of either teams winning. Once or twice, when he got momentarily bored with sunbathing, he considered joining them, but dismissed the idea rather hastily.

He, with his quite normal human physiology, was no match for Steve or Natasha, Clint had his own skill set that he could use to win a game, and Bruce… well it was a matter of time before he hulked out just to win the game and smash them all. Wasn't worth the risk, really.

And it’s not like they invited him to come play or anything, after all.

 

Eventually, his boredom grew beyond what he could suffer through quietly. Tony took off his sunglasses and blinked as he set them on a small table next to the beach-chair, took a sip from a cup filled with a fruity smoothie, and got up.

The sun grew harsher now, the sand felt hot under his toes, not to mention how continuously staring at Captain America moving all over the place made him feel almost feverish.

While they were rather quiet, and no waves that were big enough for him to surf on came about, it could change at any moment so  might as well just get in the water and float around for a bit, cool himself down and enjoy what was left of the day.

"Tony," Steve's voice rung behind him when he made his way towards the water, just as he grabbed his surfing board from where it stood in the sand. Steve's face was a little red; maybe from effort? Or maybe he caught a ball with his face. "Uh… There're no waves."

Tony stared at him a moment, the awkwardness of the statement not escaping him. "Thanks, Cap. I didn't notice."

Steve seemed embarrassed and trying hard to regain his composure, his annoyance with Tony’s glibness apparent in the harsh set of his jaw. "I meant- you're not going surfing so, you could come play with us? Or we can-"

Tony waved his hand dismissively at him, smiling. "Cap, I came to surf and have fun, not do team building exercises."

"But there are no waves, and no life-guard, for that matter," Steve pointed out, again. Tony was half expecting to hear teeth grinding, the way his face seemed to tense up after letting the words out.

"Well, I didn’t really think we’d need one, seeing as we already have two super strong, muscled blond dudes around, fulfilling the Baywatch quota as it were. One of them can fly." Tony retorted, his voice pointedly antagonistic. He saw Steve’s eyes examining him, head to toe, turning colder as he internalized Tony’s words and tone. Tony was trying not to let his own eyes roam too far down from Steve’s tense face, but his self-control proved inefficient and the temptation to find a nicer view than whatever negative emotion his handsome team leader was sporting was too strong, so he turned away instead. “It’s fine, I’m just going for a short swim, not even going too deep or anything, promise.”

He heard Steve sigh behind his back and he strode hurriedly into the water before he could call after him, starting to paddle to further himself away from the shire to escape more disapproving stares from the one person he could not bare to get them from.

_ A Female. A Mate. He had to find a Mate. He swam, his tail beating and slicing through the Waters and his eyes frantically scanning the depths. The Waters had changed, he was lost since many miles ago, unable to find his cove or his mates or any other Mer in the strangeness of those unfamiliar, shallow Waters. The need was burning within him so badly, he felt that he would soon perish if he did not satisfy it. His kind needed him to find – a female. A mate. Anything. _

_ He cried out in a last-ditch attempt to call the attention of any- Mer or not, that would indulge him. Any at all – when he finally spotted the shadow in the shallows. _

 


	2. Chapter 2

_ He swam in a circle, his eyes surveying the small shadow cruising slowly above him, the Waters swirled as his strong tail beat at them in frustration while he tried to understand what was it that he saw. _

_ Prey? Or perhaps a predator? Not likely, as he was bigger than most beasts in the waters of his cove; great whites could potentially pose a threat, but would not be found this close to the Waters' ceiling if they were healthy and in fighting condition. It had a weird shape, too straight to be organic, must be a creation of the land Mer. The creatures who walked the land for most of their lives like crabs instead of gracefully swimming in the Waters. Mers they were not, but he had no other name for them. _

_ He blinked when one such foot entered the Waters and beat at it, causing the shape to surge forward and immediately followed by another foot, making the same motion. The Mer stared at the weirdly shaped limbs, so small and bony they could fill his belly no better than a shrimp would. He wondered, absent-mindedly as he followed the creature further, if the rest of the Land Mer who, those feet belonged to, had more meat on it; would it even taste good? _

_ Usually, he wouldn't care much about the taste, not when he was in such a desperate state. Searching for a Mate for so long left him bony, frail and malnourished; too distracted to engage in a real hunt. But Land Mer's meat was perhaps too exotic for his taste even in his miserable condition, and he found himself considering it as a worthy meal. If worst came to worst, he could eat seaweed and shallow-Water fish, less Land in those. _

_ He wasn't very sure why he was even following the Land Mer and his strange device. Hunting them was rarely lucrative, and despite being so small, they had a fierceness that rivaled the biggest predators, and means for ripping a Mer's tail to shreds, and means for ripping a Mer's tail to shreds.  He’d seen enough Mers who’d had sharp blades embedded in their flesh. Dying slowly as Land Mer's poisons seeped into their Waters he knew of those dangers intimately despite never having met one of the Land Mers himself. How nourishing could something grown on land really be to be worth the danger? _

_ He wasn't worried that he would not be able to handle one little Land Mer, or course. He wasn't afraid of the creature. He just wasn't sure if It would be worth the effort, since it was much easier to catch fish. _

_ And yet he found himself curiously following the shadow, and the weirdly sweet aroma left behind it in the water. _

_ Not so much unlike the smell of a creature ready to Mate. _

Tony felt bad about telling Steve off like that. It wasn't his fault. The whole… lack of waves, Tony’s disappointment, and his lack of effort to try and get on with the program. 

He was just so… Tony had no way to describe it, the feelings he had when Steve was nearby. Frustration seemed to fit quite closely but that wasn't really it. He revered and despised and nostalgically pined for what the man represented, the ideal of him that Tony was fed through his childhood and came to despise as an adult.

Tony wanted nothing to do with it now that he actually met the man, thank you very much. The fact that he was sexually compromised just by watching him play volleyball in swimwear notwithstanding.  Anyone would be. It had nothing to do with years upon years of admiration, culminating in a lonely 15-year-old sitting alone in a dorm room, jerking off to a white-red-blue poster above his bed that was supposed to remind him of home, and instead reminded him of his own ineptitude and paternal disparagements – all in the form of the idealistic Captain America.

As he bitterly contemplated his relationship with Cap – the symbol, and Steve – the man, Tony lay chest down on his board, his arms absentmindedly pushed at the near standstill surface of the water. At one point, he almost thought he felt a ripple in them, some sort of disturbance, but there was no wind to back that feeling so he attributed it to wishful thinking and continued paddling, not paying any heed to the growing distance between himself and the shore. He was just more than a shouting distance from his party when he felt it again.

There was definitely something that caused his board to ripple several feet ahead, and it nearly made him lose his grip. The water was calm, and there still wasn't any wind to speak of, so what the hell?

Tony climbed and stood balanced steadily on his board, and glanced around. Somehow, he wandered a little further than any sensible person would from the shore. He wasn't normally that irresponsible when he went surfing, was he? Normally he had Rhodey with him and they knew how to keep each other in check, do risky things but do it safely. There was no reason to risk drowning just for a short thrill.

Steve, Tony realized with a bitter chuckle, was right to chastise him for the lack of a life-guard. Someone professional would have called him back long before he got this far.

He made up his mind to start swimming back, maybe join in on the group activities, when he noticed something else through the clear waters.

A shadow. A large, almost three times his own size, shadow.

It was nearly directly under him, swimming in slow, predatory circles.

Tony followed it with his eyes, his body struggled to keep itself balanced on the board as he swallowed thickly, and attempted to stay calm. Drowning suddenly seemed like a very minor thing to worry about, when faced with the very real possibility of a shark attack.

Of course, he knew sharks usually had a bad rep, and most of the time he could sympathize with them. Sometimes, he even entertained the idea of going scuba-diving with them like any multi-billionaire with a streak of reckless risk-taking, action seeking idiocy would do. Had the creature been further away and not directly under him. Tony would have made a calm and collected escape, leave the board behind and swim back to shore, but as it were, letting any of his limbs back into the water again seemed like a sure way of getting them bitten right off.

Tony's eyes drifted for the shore, it was so far now, he could barely see his team anymore. Would they even hear if he yelled? Steve probably could, and maybe they might send Thor to look for him when they realize that he's gone, maybe --

The shadow under him suddenly moved and it sent another large, unsteady ripple across the water. The wave created by its force sent Tony's board several feet further away from the shore, and very nearly toppled him off of it, if not for his, frankly amazing, grasp of surfing techniques and exquisite sense of balance, he would've fallen straight into the water and became easy prey for the creature below. Which was not good.

Tony surveyed the shadow wearily; it was huge, and shaped… weirdly, for a shark. It had a long, rather wide looking tail, but its upper body tapered off to a thinner silhouette. It was unlike any fish he’d seen before.  

He started to wonder if he had run into some kind of a freak mutation when the shadow started growing even bigger, and the board shook under his legs as the sea surface was disturbed. The water began to ripple. It was inevitable. Tony barely managed to shout a choppy cry for help when he slipped and fell into the water.     


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This turned out pretty short, sorry about that. :)
> 
> I recommend listening to some Whales singing while you read: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=savCAd6RyPI

_ He swam in a circle, his eyes surveying the small shadow cruising slowly above him, the Waters swirled as his strong tail beat at them in frustration while he tried to understand what was it that he saw. _

_ Prey? Or perhaps a predator? Not likely, as he was bigger than most beasts in the waters of his cove; great whites could potentially pose a threat, but would not be found this close to the Waters' ceiling if they were healthy and in fighting condition. It had a weird shape, too straight to be organic, must be a creation of the land Mer. The creatures who walked the land for most of their lives like crabs instead of gracefully swimming in the Waters. Mers they were not, but he had no other name for them. _

_ He blinked when one such foot entered the Waters and beat at it, causing the shape to surge forward and immediately followed by another foot, making the same motion. The Mer stared at the weirdly shaped limbs, so small and bony they could fill his belly no better than a shrimp would. He wondered, absent-mindedly as he followed the creature further, if the rest of the Land Mer who, those feet belonged to, had more meat on it; would it even taste good? _

_ Usually, he wouldn't care much about the taste, not when he was in such a desperate state. Searching for a Mate for so long left him bony, frail and malnourished; too distracted to engage in a real hunt. But Land Mer's meat was perhaps too exotic for his taste even in his miserable condition, and he found himself considering it as a worthy meal. If worst came to worst, he could eat seaweed and shallow-Water fish, less Land in those. _

_ He wasn't very sure why he was even following the Land Mer and his strange device. Hunting them was rarely lucrative, and despite being so small, they had a fierceness that rivaled the biggest predators, and means for ripping a Mer's tail to shreds, and means for ripping a Mer's tail to shreds.  He’d seen enough Mers who’d had sharp blades embedded in their flesh. Dying slowly as Land Mer's poisons seeped into their Waters he knew of those dangers intimately despite never having met one of the Land Mers himself. How nourishing could something grown on land really be to be worth the danger? _

_ He wasn't worried that he would not be able to handle one little Land Mer, or course. He wasn't afraid of the creature. He just wasn't sure if It would be worth the effort, since it was much easier to catch fish. _

_ And yet he found himself curiously following the shadow, and the weirdly sweet aroma left behind it in the water. _

_ Not so much unlike the smell of a creature ready to Mate. _

Tony felt bad about telling Steve off like that. It wasn't his fault. The whole… lack of waves, Tony’s disappointment, and his lack of effort to try and get on with the program. 

He was just so… Tony had no way to describe it, the feelings he had when Steve was nearby. Frustration seemed to fit quite closely but that wasn't really it. He revered and despised and nostalgically pined for what the man represented, the ideal of him that Tony was fed through his childhood and came to despise as an adult.

Tony wanted nothing to do with it now that he actually met the man, thank you very much. The fact that he was sexually compromised just by watching him play volleyball in swimwear notwithstanding.  Anyone would be. It had nothing to do with years upon years of admiration, culminating in a lonely 15-year-old sitting alone in a dorm room, jerking off to a white-red-blue poster above his bed that was supposed to remind him of home, and instead reminded him of his own ineptitude and paternal disparagements – all in the form of the idealistic Captain America.

As he bitterly contemplated his relationship with Cap – the symbol, and Steve – the man, Tony lay chest down on his board, his arms absentmindedly pushed at the near standstill surface of the water. At one point, he almost thought he felt a ripple in them, some sort of disturbance, but there was no wind to back that feeling so he attributed it to wishful thinking and continued paddling, not paying any heed to the growing distance between himself and the shore. He was just more than a shouting distance from his party when he felt it again.

There was definitely something that caused his board to ripple several feet ahead, and it nearly made him lose his grip. The water was calm, and there still wasn't any wind to speak of, so what the hell?

Tony climbed and stood balanced steadily on his board, and glanced around. Somehow, he wandered a little further than any sensible person would from the shore. He wasn't normally that irresponsible when he went surfing, was he? Normally he had Rhodey with him and they knew how to keep each other in check, do risky things but do it safely. There was no reason to risk drowning just for a short thrill.

Steve, Tony realized with a bitter chuckle, was right to chastise him for the lack of a life-guard. Someone professional would have called him back long before he got this far.

He made up his mind to start swimming back, maybe join in on the group activities, when he noticed something else through the clear waters.

A shadow. A large, almost three times his own size, shadow.

It was nearly directly under him, swimming in slow, predatory circles.

Tony followed it with his eyes, his body struggled to keep itself balanced on the board as he swallowed thickly, and attempted to stay calm. Drowning suddenly seemed like a very minor thing to worry about, when faced with the very real possibility of a shark attack.

Of course, he knew sharks usually had a bad rep, and most of the time he could sympathize with them. Sometimes, he even entertained the idea of going scuba-diving with them like any multi-billionaire with a streak of reckless risk-taking, action seeking idiocy would do. Had the creature been further away and not directly under him. Tony would have made a calm and collected escape, leave the board behind and swim back to shore, but as it were, letting any of his limbs back into the water again seemed like a sure way of getting them bitten right off.

Tony's eyes drifted for the shore, it was so far now, he could barely see his team anymore. Would they even hear if he yelled? Steve probably could, and maybe they might send Thor to look for him when they realize that he's gone, maybe --

The shadow under him suddenly moved and it sent another large, unsteady ripple across the water. The wave created by its force sent Tony's board several feet further away from the shore, and very nearly toppled him off of it, if not for his, frankly amazing, grasp of surfing techniques and exquisite sense of balance, he would've fallen straight into the water and became easy prey for the creature below. Which was not good.

Tony surveyed the shadow wearily; it was huge, and shaped… weirdly, for a shark. It had a long, rather wide looking tail, but its upper body tapered off to a thinner silhouette. It was unlike any fish he’d seen before.  

He started to wonder if he had run into some kind of a freak mutation when the shadow started growing even bigger, and the board shook under his legs as the sea surface was disturbed. The water began to ripple. It was inevitable. Tony barely managed to shout a choppy cry for help when he slipped and fell into the water.     

*

_ The land Mer, as it turned out, was a rather weird creature. It flailed in the water and threw its elongated limbs all around as it struggled to get back to the ceiling of the Water. With no webbing or fins to help it maneuver through the Waters it lacked all sorts of grace and beauty one could witness in the deeps, between those born of the sea. A creature like that should not even be in the Waters, but alas – those like him have dominated the shallows, and their tools had slowly found their way deeper and deeper as time went by, ruining habitats, driving the Mer folk to seek refuge and a place of peace to live and breed in deeper, unexplored depths. It was hard. Their population grew smaller as the pool of potential Mates shrunk, more pups became deformed in the wombs of the merfolk that held them. _

 

_ The Mer’s gills tingled as the Land Mer moved, again so similarly as they would with a potential Mate near-by. It was peculiar and disturbing, a perversion of nature. Some Mer found it satisfying to spread their seed among the Great Whites or the Killer whales, the mating routines were similar and resulted in new – if somewhat deformed - pups, the Mers got to enlarge their numbers when no suitable mates were around to carry for them at the slight risk of minor mutation. _

_ He had heard of breeding with Land Mer, long ago, and had found it distasteful, not to mention dangerous. Deformities inherited from whales and sharks were slight, in the shape of a tail or mismatched coloring, But Land Mer were too different, with their feet and lack of fins and webbed fingers, who knew what sort of deformities the pup might inherit?  Who would choose such an unknown fate for their pups? _

_ Was it a Perversion then, if he felt attracted despite his awareness of the risk? Or was his body trying to tell him that it was natural to seek these  foreign creatures for the sake of the continuation of his line? His instincts would not send him on a false quest. _

_ The Land Mer grabbed the thing on which it stood before, its head breaching through the ceiling of the Waters. The Mer had no more time to ponder. _

Tony inhaled air and spat salt water and bile through his mouth roughly at the same time he struggled  up onto the board, which caused him to choke and nearly lose his grip on the slippery thing. His legs kicked at the water's surface frantically in his repetitive  failed attempts to climb the board. Finally, he stilled. His legs stopped kicking and remained dangling in the water while he breathed heavily, the side of his face and his chest were stuck  against the board surface, his eyes were wide-open in terror. His pupils darted around in panic as he tried, not very successfully, to remind himself that he was  _ not _ being held in a cave in the far past, head shoved into a tub of freezing water and hands struggling to keep hold of the battery keeping him alive, but in an otherwise very dangerous situation in the present.

He closed his eyes and bit his lip in an attempt to calm himself, wondering if the shark got spooked by his thrashing and decided not to take a bite out of him  and instead went away, but he didn’t dare look. The salt water he swallowed made his throat scratchy and trying to get his voice to come out was painful, but that was not what stopped him from calling out for help.

What did ultimately stop him, after he managed to calm himself just enough to breath sufficiently again, were a couple of big, black eyes nestled in a yet bigger, pale, green humanoid-but-not-quite-human-face that was  staring at him as a head three times the size of his own rose from the sea. It had a narrow face and bald head, with sharp cheekbones, eyes that did not blink, and no visible nose. It only had two holes where normally the nostrils would have been had it been human, and the rest of it stayed beneath the water, so Tony could not make out the shape of its mouth.

He couldn't make much of anything, to be honest. He froze under the studious eyes examining him, unblinking and barely moving, alien in every possible standard and strangely mesmerizing-

His breathing slowed from frantic to nearly non-existent, thoughts of dark caves and pain and fear bubbled up, then slowly faded; his mind clouding as eerie sounds of  whales singing and calling to each other in deep and far away waters started seeping in and filling up his mind instead. He wanted to scream as the darkness and loneliness became overbearing, but no sound left his lips . He wanted to answer the calling, he wanted to-

His breath caught in his throat and his knuckles tightened around the edge of his board, he felt something… something scaly and slimy brush against his legs and his entire body instinctually flinched. A primal instinctual force took  control of his motor skills as soon as his mind had failed, and at that exact moment the Mesmer broke, Tony took a shaky breath, and another - when something sharp – teeth, no. a… a hand?  _ Something  _ wrapped itself around his calf in its entirety: bony and long fingers wrapped around his flesh, and claws sank into his skin with enough force to injure. Tony was bare and vulnerable. Nothing to protect him, no metal suit to cocoon himself in. what was he thinking-

Tony’s eyes flashed to where the eyes had been, they, and the entirety of the inhuman face – were now gone, replaced by a patch of bubbling water. He opened his mouth and drew breath, ready to scream for his life – when he felt the first tug on his leg, powerful and unrelenting enough to make him lose his grip on the only thing that was keeping him afloat, and he forgot  his resolution to scream and maybe get the attention of his team. Instead, he attempted to regain his hold and kick away the nightmare creature that had its horrible hand on him.

An ultimately useless attempt. Wide-eyed and desperate, Tony clawed at the board, trying to find his grip again, but failing when  a second tug pulled him away from it, forcing him fully below the surface of the water, kicking and flailing his arms and trying to keep breathing where it was impossible to do so. No suit to salvage him from the situation, no familiar British voice to calmly break down the numbers or offer comfort in the face of the void.

He didn’t dare to look down at what it was that had him, he didn’t dare stare into the vast darkness of that creature’s eyes again, Tony kept his eyes up, looking at the rays of sunlight that broke through the surface while continuing his push to get back to them. But how could he, merely human, useless and weak and vulnerable as he ever was – hope to fight at all?

One final tug on his leg pulled him further down, a long and bony arm wrapped around his midsection to assist the other one, and the last traces of oxygen Tony managed to preserve was gone as he was pulled  towards the dark depths of the ocean.

And as he was pulled down, without air and light and with horror haunting every single fiber of his being, the sounds of Whale songs filled his head again. Louder under the water, closer. Soothing and loving.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Listen to whales singing underwater for the full experience! https://youtu.be/nDqP7kcr-sc

The understatement of the decade is to say that Tony was surprised when he woke up.

Tony didn't believe in an after-life, heaven or hell or any sort of nonsense like that, he expected death to be just… an end to his existence. A sharp, cutting termination of his consciousness.

Nevertheless, here he was, opening his eyes to witness an endless, cloudless blue sky, a weak gust of wind stroking his cheek and drying his wet hair, and the surface of wet sand on top of sea-side rocky terrain poking against his back. Tony’s mind felt numb but it was there, thoughts bubbling under the surface, inquiries waiting to be made. So, despite remembering quite clearly that he should have been a dead corpse on the bottom of the ocean or eaten by a sea monster, the logical conclusion was that he was not.

It took a couple of seconds for him to fully open his eyes, and another second  to look away from the endless, light toned blue of the sky, just to encounter the richer, deeper blue of the ocean.

Tony blinked. Once, twice, then closed his eyes as a headache, chest pain and nausea all hit him at once and he found himself toppling to his side, drawing in shallow breaths and coughing out the sea water that had shot through his respiratory system.Next he vomited every last ounce of substance he had in his stomach, which unsurprisingly included mostly salt water and what could have been stomach acid for how much it burned passing in his throat.

When he was finished, he fell back on the sand, managing to put a bit of distance between himself and the puddle of bile instead of falling right back into it. Attempting to ignore the pain of his ears popping, Tony winced and gasped as he blinked  his eyes again and tried to look around.

He wasn’t on the shore. Well, he was on a shore, not his shore, not the one where the Avengers were having their little beach party and not noticing he was gone- the bitterness from the thought spurned him to get up, or at the very least pull his upper half up and rest himself on his elbows to get a better look of his surroundings. In every aspect observable, this was not a very good decision to make.

Every direction he looked in, he only saw blue. A vast blue sky, and a sprawling blue sea stretched out as far as the eye could see. It was everywhere around him. Nothing else was in sight. He was stranded on… he couldn't even call it an island; he was stranded on a piece of rock. In what looked like the middle of the ocean.

Tony did not get anxious. He didn't sweat excessively or blink his eyes way too fast, he didn't get nauseated again, his heart certainly did not start booming in his chest cavity under the arc reactor like some teen band's overpriced  speakers blasting bad music, he was not panicking at not being able to see his team anymore, or at the prospect of either dying here of hunger, or drowning when the tide came and the small rock ledge got devoured by the waves that would inevitably carry him away… back into the depths…

He did not stumble in a blind panic away from the line of water as soon as he managed to get his body to listen to him. He didn't even have the time to think about the black eyes and the whale-song, because they suddenly appeared on their very own.

 

_ The Mer observed from a safe distance as the Land-Mer woke. He’d started to become worried that it may not happen, after the creature stopped flailing in the water or responding to his calling with its scrambled mind's whines, the Mer realized it might have needed to be above the water to continue its life. Having to be considerate of that limitation was a strain, he had to get the Land Mer to the shallows before it perished and rendered his entire quest a waste of time – somehow, he managed it, and the creature survived despite its  concerning lack of gills and recuperated when exposed to the air outside the Waters. Not unlike a Dolphin or a Whale, it needed it in order to stay alive. _

_ However, Dolphins and whales could dive and stay underwater for a lot longer than this Land-Mer could, and that was worrying. If the Pups produced with this creature do not develop gills or the ability to hold their breath for long enough period of time to get food or escape a predator, they will grow weak and die while leaving a stain on his lineage. _

_ The chance of deformities was always there, even with Mer females. There was always a chance of a bad litter; always a chance of failure. _

_ But, it was no reason to not at least try. _

_ The Mer lashed his tail against the Waters, he watched as the Land-Mer pulled himself away from the Waters. He called to it, and it answered with desperate and confused, unintelligible whines. _

_ Yet to be noticed, the Mer slowly swam closer, then dived. His body itched to touch, to breed the only living creature able to carry his young, the urgency was maddening – courtship, at this stage, seemed nearly redundant. With another Mer, he would not have bothered at all… they did not require the entire ceremony, even if it did garner better chances of healthy pups – with other species, especially those who did not lay their eggs naturally, the courtship was needed for any chance at all. _

The stone was uneven and slippery under Tony's feet, but finally he was able to stand up without falling on his ass or worse still, into the water that surrounded him on all sides. He also managed to get his frantic breathing under control, even as the calling of whales started poking at the edge of his mind, or perhaps it was the cause of the numb feeling that he had a hard time shaking off.

He squinted his eyes and looked towards the horizon, searching for any sign of civilization or even a sign that he was anywhere near land that was bigger than a public bathroom stall. He saw nothing that would suggest it and was left wondering just how far he was taken and, as the whole 'sea monster' thing seemed to have been some sort of hallucination used to distract and frighten him, if so by whom. What did they want? Leaving him there with no food or source  of drinkable water, not a coconut tree in sight, was surely a form of torture. He could handle it – he could make it until they decided to make an appearance. If they wanted to kill him they would have done so already.

The sounds at the edge of his mind were growing stronger, and Tony shook his head violently to try to regain his receding consciousness. It was a drug, or a broadcasted signal that could create hallucinations, something…  _ something _ … to keep him numb and afraid, another form of torture.

How else could he explain the creature that leapt  from the water the next moment.

Its  humanoid, huge torso on full display of green tinged skin taut over a muscled chest and stomach, descending into a different type of skin – rough and off-white, spotted with old scars and peeling patches of dull scales, a long and thick tail like that of a large shark, beating at the air as the creature completed his impressively high leap, and elegantly dove back into the water on the other side of the rock, disappearing into nothing but a shadow beneath the water.

Yeah. Tony was definitely hallucinating. This… whatever it was, definitely not a…

The creature leapt again, and this time it made a sound too – the same as the ones plaguing Tony's mind, its black eyes captured Tony’s amazed stare mid-air, unblinking and so alien, but not in a terrifying, Chitauri-lethality-alien sort of way, no… Tony didn’t know how to describe what he felt when he looked and followed those eyes as the creature returned to the water, There was loneliness and yearning, beautiful and sad just like the voices that tugged at his mind, increasing with every passing moment to push back the fear and uncertainty that Tony could no longer fully understand the reason for.

The shift was sharp enough to be nearly painless.

He found himself running toward the edge of the rock as the creature disappeared under the water, he had to see those eyes, had to hear the sounds that called to him so lovingly. Fear of them didn’t make sense to him, even as he recognized that it was present. It settled in his chest like the shrapnel, only heavier, and even sharper.

Tony kneeled, his fingers grasping at the slippery rock as he leaned and tried to find the dark eyes under the water. He didn’t have to search long, for the creature soon rose from the water, its long and nearly human arms stretching to hold Tony's shoulder and waist in a loose embrace, pulling him forward, beyond the edge.

The calling in his mind increased, and the creature audibly joined in, its voice pouring through the weird, wide and lipless mouth that opened to reveal rows of shark-like teeth, its eyes dark and swirling like a deep-water twister. There was no resisting it, no force in the universe that could make Tony want to look away and stop listening to the sounds of whales.

The hands caressed down his body, moving slowly, despite their size, to feel his every curve and shape it as they wished, at times pulling him farther, and at others – keeping him steady on the slippery surface of the rock. One hand rested on Tony’s stomach, then it began kneading, careless of its long, sharp claws that pierced the skin as they did, causing Tony to gasp and whimper. The pain only slightly weakening the fog in his mind, making it give way to fleeting rational thoughts before the creature captured his frightened gaze again and let one of his hands caress Tony’s tear stained cheeks.

The kneading against his stomach intensified in strength, the claws leaving visible puncture marks wherever its hand moved. Tony whimpered. The hand at his cheek moved to the side of his head, webbed fingers curling around the hair at his nape and pulling him against the creature's chest as it descended into the water, pulling his body after him. On his stomach, the wounds that remained  from the claws burned all the way from his skin to his insides. Everything burned, then cramped, but the pain would not stop, and Tony couldn't get himself to scream or be frightened by the feeling. He heard whales again. They were so close… they will find him soon, and he will be safe with them.


	5. Chapter 5

_ Once the Land-Mer was pliantly resting in his arms, its mind calm and answering the calling in a consistent, slow voice, the Mer pulled him from the rock into the water. He made sure to keep its head above the ceiling of it, pinning its body against the rock with the strength of one hand while the other explored the rest of his chosen Mate’s body. _

_ It was incredibly small, smaller in size than a grown dolphin. Its upper body was somewhat similar to the Mer’s own, even if its head was different in shape. It didn’t seem like it was any kind of predator, or even capable of hunting on its own. Its jaws were too small and too weak. ts claws blunt and short, and it had small, useless limbs instead of a strong tail. _

_ The Mer growled despondently. The prospects for his lineage did not look good. He could’ve bred a jellyfish and the pups would probably have a better chance of surviving.  But this was all he could find. _

_ He dived, and under the water he could still smell the remains of old arousal on the creature, the scent mixing with the sweet odor of its blood as it seeped  -assorted with his venom- into the Waters, turning them warm and red. The smell rekindled his own desire, the primal instinct saying that it was a good match, that it would fulfill its role and deliver healthy pups despite its many, many disadvantages. _

_ And if not, He would at the very least be satisfied after for having spread his seed like his nature demanded. _

_ Diving under the Waters revealed another aspect of the creature he had not paid attention to before. There was a light shining in its chest, a pretty and bright light. The Mer was taught as a pup to be weary of pretty lights, especially in the Deeps, where they were used as lures by predators, and warning signs by venomous fish that should not be hunted. On the Land-Mer, however, it seemed to be merely decorative. _

_ With his free hand, he concealed it. Watching the light shine through his fingers and illuminate his skin. It was pretty, and the Mer was ready to forgive the rest of the problems if it meant his pups could inherit such a shine from it. _

Tony was suspended, held effortlessly against the slippery wall of the rock he woke up on. Most of his body was submerged in the water, and the only thing holding him, preventing him from sinking further, was the hand on his stomach, kneading, breaching his skin. He couldn’t see those dark eyes anymore, they were under the water. The whales were distant again. He traced the thin tendrils of crimson that floated in the water. It was his blood, and it was coming from where the monster’s claws had pierced him.

He still had a foggy haze in his mind, making all of his senses dim and weak. But the sight of blood made him aware of the burn he felt multiplying and spreading through his insides like fire, and the awareness brought with it sudden focus, driving away the fog and letting the rising distress reverberate around his mind.

Once he was focused on the pain, he could feel nothing else. His stomach was being torn apart, shaken and turned and ripped apart again.His insides burned and it seemed as if the pain would never stop. Tony knew pain, he knew invasion and torture. He knew what it felt like to have his own body turning against him, poisoned.

What he felt as the fog cleared, was all of that combined.

Tony closed his eyes, felt  the tears gather underneath his eyelids as his breathing strained, and choked groans left  his throat as his hands tried to find purchase in the rock-bed behind him whilst his legs tried to kick the thing away. His stomach cramped, and a sharp pain shot through his lower back all the way to his neck. He screamed then, as he choked on his own tears and salty drops of sea water that resulted from his futile struggle against the shadow under the water.

A part of him wished he could hear the whales again, that the fog would return, another part frantically tried to find an explanation to the situation, gather clues and rationalize what was clearly an abnormal  situation.

That thing holding him, the thing that was physically under the water, touching him – Tony could no longer pass it as a mere hallucination or a dream but, he couldn’t accept it as something real, either. The mutated, alien, nightmare ‘little mermaid’ that was three times his size and doing something horrifying to his body  -that had him straining against the rock, groaning and spluttering because he couldn’t gather enough air to scream - could under no circumstances be a real creature. Shield would have known if it was, Jarvis would have notified him about something so fantastical as mermaids being real – but maybe… maybe he just wasn’t on earth anymore. Maybe whoever abducted him was Asgardian, and this was an Asgardian sea. That made much more sense. It wasn’t good, or helpful in any significant way, but it made sense.

And Tony needed things to make sense, right now.

His stomach lurched again, and the creature rose from under the water. Tony hurriedly closed his eyes and turned his head aside. Whilst  relief from the pain would have been welcome, Tony feared losing his ability to think to the mesmerizing effect the dark eyes had on him would have been worse. He couldn’t – he had to think of a way to escape. And he had to do it wearing only a bathing suit in a strange sea with huge sea monsters ...yeah, no problem. If anyone could do it, it would be Tony Stark.

That was what people said about him, wasn’t it?

For a long moment, nothing happened. His stomach felt like it was boiling, and it projected sharp pains to his lower back, but the creature did not move or touch him other than where it held him through his stomach. Then the claws piercing  him and holding him in place were suddenly removed as the second huge hand moved to his waist, gently tracing down the curve of his body until it got to the lining of his bathing suit.

Tony opened his eyes, at first slowly – just into slits, and witnessed the head of the monster sinking  beneath the water surface again, and the water was just clear enough to identify the perplexed look it gave Tony’s bathing suit, just before it started trying to remove it.

“N-no… no, stop!” Tony could barely rasp out the words after the short moment it took to realize what the creature was attempting, his head started feeling foggy again as the pain in his stomach began to settle, and he couldn’t be sure which was the cause for the other. He felt the fabric of the only article of clothing he had being peeled down his pelvic, then ripped off in one swift movement when the creature realized that  was a swifter course of action. He got to watch as the only thing keeping his last shred of dignity in this strange place float away, and just like that, it left him exposed to the ministrations of the creature, which was too curious for its own good, or it knew what it was doing perfectly well. Either way, Tony wanted its sharp, awful claws far away from his person, and especially far from where they seemed to be going now.

_ The Land-Mer was a male, he noted, taking a whiff of the scent that the creature gave off from his sex. An old, unfulfilled arousal, lingering and sweet. It was why the Mer had taken notice of it in the first place, and he was pleased to discover it again. It would be much easier to do this with an instinctively wanting mate than one that would deny him entirely. The creature had no slit, its maleness was bare, and small enough to be wrapped entirely by his hand twice over.  He observed with delight as it stiffened under his touch when he traced its shape with one finger from the base to the top and back, finding beneath it a tiny sack that made the Land-Mer twitch even more violently when touched or pinched. The Land-Mer’s limbs kicked and twitched wildly, but they were only a nuisance to be easily ignored. _

_ He watched as the cock stiffened and rose at the attention he gave, filling under his touch and giving off more and more of that sweet scent that began mixing with the coppery odor of the blood and venom already in the water. _

_ The involuntary responses from the Land-Mer’s maleness and the scents all around him caused his own arousal to surge and his slit to open. His cock sliding out of it stiff and ready. _

_ Of course, nothing could be that simple with the Land-Mer.  Its entrance -it seemed- was on its other side. He crooned and snapped his jaw in frustration at the extra work he was forced to do, and wrapped his arms around its midsection, pulling it away from the stone despite its desperate effort to hold on to it. He curled his spine so that the edge of his tail was wrapped tightly around the Land-Mer’s feet, keeping it from sinking while also keeping it somewhat still. With his own hand, he held onto the stone, keeping his own head and the Land-Mer’s above the Water’s level. The Land-Mer was pressed tightly between his own body and the stone, and it was unable to escape or fight more than he would allow. _

_ His cock pulsated with need between his own body and that of the Land-Mer’s, it was not yet fully out of the slit he still began rubbing and thrusting against the smaller creature’s back, delighting in both the softness of its skin and the soft groans and whines it struggled to make with its face pressed against the stone. The Waters sloshed and moved around them, small waves forming and breaking on the stone or over the smaller creature’s head, causing the Land-Mer to cough and splutter miserably when he inhaled them during a whine. _

_ It looked pale and miserable and was attempting to claw its way up the stone wall, despite being held securely by the Mer’s hand and tail. He didn’t like it moving this much, but the size difference between them was making it hard, in this position, to discipline it. He already had to bend his body to keep his tail wrapped around the creature’s legs, his hands were holding the stone, and his cock was in position to enter its body. It was uncomfortable enough without the Land-Mer making it harder by moving and struggling so much. _

_ He hissed his annoyance when the creature rammed its elbow into his stomach and arched his back, pushing the Land-Mer closely against the stone until it rasped out a miserable cry. This was not going to work, damaging the vessel that would carry his pups to term was not a sound course of action, he needed to find a better way to keep it under control. _


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dirty Smutty smut in this chapter

Tony was struggling, trying to get away from the feeling of something… of the monster's dick – he allowed himself to acknowledge- grinding against his back. It wasn't the time to be purposefully obtuse or shy about what it was most likely trying to do.

The creature was rutting against him furiously, pushing him against the stone and under the water. He was getting less and less air into his lungs and swallowing salt water at such a regular pace that it made his throat ache. His skin felt scalding and raw where it was pressed and rubbed against the stone by the enormous body of the uncaring creature behind him. He felt the shape of that creature's cock getting longer and harder against his back as it moved, without stopping for a moment.

His struggles seemed meaningless, his hands unable to find a grip in the slippery stone and his legs tangled in the monster's tail-grip made it impossible for his legs to kick it or even flail. He couldn't even help himself from sinking. Far above him, the creature made a sound like a growl when Tony's elbow found a tender spot in its stomach, and immediately his body was pressed further against the rock. It felt like he was being crushed by the sheer weight of a skyscraper.

Then something shifted, the weight on his back lifted and the feeling of long, warm flesh against  his back disappeared. Tony could hear nothing, see nothing through the burn of the salt water in his eyes that made everything in his surroundings blurry, and say nothing through his scratchy, abused voicebox. The water around him calmed down but he could still feel the heavy presence of the monster behind him all the same.  His legs were still trapped by the creature, and no matter how much he struggled and kicked, he was unable to free himself.

He had no time to ponder the change because his body was suddenly yanked out of the water and tossed onto the rocky surface, only to immediately have one of the large clawed hands rest -with the slightest amount of pressure- at the small of his back. It gave him no time to process the feeling of sand against his cheek, or even a possibility of crawling away from the rock's edge. Tony groaned and dragged his hands through the sand, trying to find some sort of leverage to help him escape the grip, but soon enough another large hand yanked his arm away from the surface and pulled it behind his back, laying its weight on his body.

The monster growled: a low, grainy sound from deep within its throat...very different from the whale song it produced before. Its head, previously held high above Tony’s eye level, was now within his sight. The black eyes were swirling, and were blinking slowly when those eyes  caught Tony’s gaze. Then, it opened its mouth to reveal a threatening set of teeth that reminded him of the Chitauri Whale the Avengers faced in New York, one he was intimately familiar with.

Despite the terrifying sight, the buzzing of anxiety and fear in his mind started to quiet down, and he couldn’t help continuously gazing into the black eyes of the beast and becoming addicted. a bit by bit, to the patterns in which they moved and to the softness they brought to his mind. His muscles relaxed as he rested his head against the damp sand, and the pain from having his hand held so far behind him started to fade soon as well. When he managed to think about it, it registered as a relief of sorts.

He knew what was going to happen, more or less… well, he’d never done it with a human male before but he was familiar with the basics and was nearly sure that under other circumstances, he could at the very least handle the act, maybe even find it pleasurable. But this was a whole other species. What if it had something weird going on? What if it’s dick was barbed or weirdly textured? What if it tried to knot him like a dog or bit his head off when it was done with his body? What if it did it during…? He shuddered violently.

Fear started bubbling in his chest. For a moment he could feel the painful stretch  of his shoulder muscles – hear the waves and the grainy growls of that horrible creature that was going to  _ rape _ him – for a moment, he found that he could blink away the mystifying effect of the dark eyes on his mind and feel the pain and the fear was overwhelming his body and mind,  and for a moment he believed that it could spur him to escape this monstrous act… However, the eyes captured him again – just as he felt something warm pushing into him – and he allowed the mist to have him with a broken sense of resignation.

_ The _ _ Land-Mer relaxed under his weight, finally acknowledging him as a dominant being and a rightful breeder. Its entrance was tight, warm and inviting, and with the courting ritual already affecting the smaller creature’s body, it began lubricating as he slid in. He growled deeply, his hand sliding across the dip in the creature’s back, feeling the vibrations of its submissive trembling at the feel of the Mer’s cock finally entering it. It made a choking noise, and when the Mer found its eyes again, they were glossy and wet as it stared at him blankly. _

_ Truly, it was a pitiful sight. The sounds it made were rather miserable, and its face convulsed in pain with every push he made further inside it . An unhappy mate was not a fertile one, and the Mer was not particularly fond of making his chosen one hurt, as some others were.   _

_ No longer needing to hold the Land-Mer to prevent it struggling, he let his hands roam its body instead, find the spots that made its hole tighten around him and the voices leaving its mouth to turn deeper and lengthier and just slightly less miserable. _

_ One such spot was its cock – half hard, slowly leaking its own seed when he traced its shape with his fingers, letting them wrap around it and squeeze until the Land-Mer squealed like a dolphin through the haze of its passive headspace;  another was between its shoulder and neck, where the Mer scraped his claws against the delicate skin, making his beloved mate shudder intensively around him. _

_ He moved slowly, savoring the moments of the mating, and the sympathy he felt for his mate was developing -as was natural- into a loving, wild lust despite their many differences. He wanted to draw it on, make the feeling last because he knew he would not get to feel it again for a long time after this. _

_ When at least half the length of his cock was buried inside his Mate, filling and stretching its tight hole so it fit snugly around him, and a pretty, red color started intensifying in the skin just around it – the Mer stopped to rest and admire the sight under him, his tail beat at the Waters, spraying them over himself and his mate to offer some relief to the hotness their bodies shared as they joined, and his hands moved slowly across the soft skin, pressing the pads of his fingers deeper to help ease the tension it held underneath. _

_ Then they arrived at their destination, the curve of the smaller creature's stomach was a perfect gripping place for the next part of their joining. He held his hands there, running circles on the skin with his thumbs, only careful enough to not let his claws pierce their way too deep into his mate's skin. _

_ He began to thrust. Faster and deeper each time, his tail splashed the Water on top of them, moving excitedly as he crooned loudly, letting his song be carried away to any who may hear. He found his mate and he was breeding it – what a joyful occurrence it was! Maybe at the sound of his voice others might come near to share his happiness and his legacy, maybe he would not be alone in the Waters, anymore. _

_ If not, then soon he would have pups to keep him company, instead. _

_ His mate was singing too; its voice loud, and mournful for its surrender… beautiful. _

In the glimpses of consciousness that Tony had, when the pain flooded his mind faster and sharper than the mist could push out and numb down, Tony screamed. He screamed continuously and hoarsely, all the while his hands searched around the sand for something to grasp, something more solid than the sand that poured out of his fingers. Something that could provide the comfort and stability he desperately needed.

As his ass met the creature’s groin in a powerful slap, he felt the stretch –too wide to be possible without injury, he knew– and mourned, as the thought of being so thoroughly ruined passed the barrier of numbness in his mind.

.

The drag of the creature’s cock inside of him was even worse, he could feel its inhumane shape – too long. Too thick… deeper than he could ever believe was possible. It went in and out smoothly, pressing against his internal organs as it thrusted in and out of him, creating strange sensations  – it wasn’t outright painful, but also not… not anything else Tony could recognize, either. It elicited an urge to push back, to reciprocate, to keep the feeling going so he could understand it. He didn’t want to feel it, he didn’t want to recognize it for what it truly was, but his body – ravaged, ruined and transformed – was not his own anymore.

His screams were moans, and pain was pleasure. The mist in his mind cleared a little, allowing him to make that distinction. It was a sluggish and terrible thought that began to prod at his mind. Somehow, he was enjoying this. He was loving the feeling of fullness and the guidance of the huge hands on his hips, moving his loose and obedient body back to meet the body of the monster... Mate. Breeder. He needed this. It was  _ horrible _ , but it felt so right… this–he needed to be filled like this, he needed…

Tony shivered as the words popped into his mind and disappeared just as fast. Their effect lingered as his own movements became more potent, the push of his hips against the monster as it thrusted and drove in the last few inches that had not yet made their way inside.

And still Tony needed more. The burn of its width inside him did not reach deep enough, and now...now there wasn’t any more to take. The monster's cock was so long and so wide that Tony thought that he could feel everything inside him pressing against his skin, but soon the penetration ended. In the end it could only fill him up to a limit, not any further than that. To make him crave this feeling so fully and so suddenly deprive him of it, it was cruel. He cried and moaned and moved to try and change the angle, get more of it into himself than was possible, but nothing worked. A spray of salt water hit his back and the grip of the hands on his hip turned tighter.

His own cock, hard from having been grinding against the ground as Tony was fucked by the creature, felt like it was on the brink of bursting, and Tony cried out as he moved one shaking hand to help it along. The Merman didn’t seem to mind as it increased the rhythm of both its song and thrusts, and Tony finally came, sobbing and gasping into his hand just a moment before the movements suddenly stilled.

Tony whined quietly and tried to move himself to spur the monster into more thrusts, but the hands now held him immobile as well. The song stopped abruptly after a few moments of stillness, then the organ inside Tony began to pulse and something wet and hot burst from it, and a strong stream of  _ something _  made its way inside and filled him up. Tony couldn’t recall ever feeling anything quite like it. It wasn’t like  a full stomach after a satisfying meal at all, he didn’t feel bloated or uncomfortable, he felt _ good _ . His belly filled with the merman’s seed somehow –despite the constraints of human physiology that bothered him at short bursts of clarity– gave him a sense of achievement. He was so good and so warm like this.

The pulses kept coming, and with them the warmth spread through his body like the mist that had trickled into his mind in the beginning. His hand, sticky with his own spunk and dirty with grainy sand moved to touch the sweat soaked portion of his lower stomach where the warmth was most potent, vied to feel it filling as the intermissions between pulses shortened and the stream flowed weaker. Tony whined as the huge hand on his hip moved to pry away his own hand from the area, once again stretching it with a painful grip.

The Merman then thrust into him a few more times, slow and methodical.  The movements were smooth and loud inside the newly-flooded channel, but somehow it also hurt more, and it burned against his sensitive walls until Tony screamed again. His voice was at its limit, and his body was far too exhausted for a second round. The monster pulled on his arm irritably, nearly pulling it out of its socket before Tony’s screams quietened down to weak sobs, at which point it eased the stretch, very clearly urging him to stay quiet as it continued.

Tony gasped into the ground, face scraping against the grainy sand. Whatever the creature was doing to him now was different than what was done before, what it was shooting into him was too dense and too hot… it felt like melted wax, if he had to compare it to anything. So, it probably wasn’t… it was probably a different bodily liquid that he did not want to think about. Tony shuddered, other than random flashes of coherent thoughts, his mind was completely blurred and fuzzy.

Tony closed his eyes. Soon, the Merman was slowing down. It made sense that it would end soon, right? It took a few more long minutes before the monster was satisfied. And Tony was so, so tired…


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay, guys. please enjoy. :)

The whales were leaving. He could still hear them fading from his mind leisurely, never quite disappearing but growing more and more distant. As that was happening, other sensations started infiltrating and assaulting his senses. Damp sand against his naked skin, wind blowing through his hair, the salty taste of sea water on his tongue, and the burn of it in his eyes… the sound of waves and… shouts. Unnecessarily loud and close, disturbing the numbness that prevented him from feeling everything –in particular the soreness roaming through his entire body.

“-Tony!” a warm hand landed on his shoulder, not delicate in its rubbing and pushing. “Tony, wake up!”

No urgency in the voice, but plenty of annoyance. That’s Cap for you.

Tony heard himself groan before he could muster a thought on doing it. His mind still felt sluggish, slower than he’d ever been in his life, even while under the influence of alcohol and other substances that were meant to have that effect on him but nearly never worked as well. It was frightening and inopportune, at the moment, but he couldn’t be bothered to react.

Something soft was draped across his body, and it contrasted against the damp yet grainy feeling of the sand against his skin.

“Gee, Stark. I get not wanting visible tan lines but maybe consider not sunbathing naked when other people are around?” Clint’s voice sounded amused but his words made no sense. “Or, you know, a warning could’ve been nice…”

Tony groaned again. The numbness in his mind was not completely gone, and the words Clint were saying were not making any sense. Tony wasn’t sunbathing – he went… he went surfing. He wanted to- but then…

“What? Tony you’re not making any sense- You think he’s got a heat stroke?” Tony opened his eyes slowly, and found both Steve and Clint leaning over him and looking at each other, almost as if he wasn’t even there. He blinked a few times, trying to get the cobwebs out of his tired eyes.

Nearly unconsciously, his hand moved from the sand to his stomach. It was covered with a soft towel to hide his indecency. He slid his hand beneath it to feel the clammy, yet surprisingly smooth and unblemished skin where he remembered sharp pain administered by sharp claws left him with  deep holes in his flesh. That too, had disappeared.

He felt heavy and tired, but not so numb anymore. On the contrary –everything seemed to become over-sensitized– the sand prickling against his aching back, the wind too fast, too cold. The voices talking too loudly and too harshly.

Someone lifted his head and placed a bottle of water near his lips. Then the bottle was tipped and the water sloshed around his mouth and down his throat just like they did when he was pulled down into the depths of the sea and he was drowning– 

He spluttered and coughed, moving his head away and closed his eyes shut as his hand moved to push whoever was holding him away. Steve moved after a moment’s hesitation, but the heavy and solid feel of his body was unyielding against  Tony’s weak pushes, and a fresh surge of panic climbed up Tony’s back. 

“N-no, let go of me!… I don’t… I’m not…” Tony breathed, struggling to get loose from Steve’s supportive grip on his shoulder. He saw the concern in those blue eyes, but the image that flashed through his mind was of luminous, black and not-at-all-human eyes staring at him, and rendering him still as their owner violated him.

It couldn’t have been real. He wasn’t…

“Tony?! Tony, look at me! Clint is calling emergency services. You have to drink some water, ok? Everything is going to be fine, but you have to drink some water, ok?” Steve’s voice cut through his jumbled thoughts and outlandish images in his mind. The bottle was once again pushed against his lips, and the feeling of cold water against them once again prompted him to splutter and try to move away, but this time Steve held on, forcing him to take in and swallow the water. The fresh water was sweet and soothing, but it still caused him to gag.

Steve gave him a short reprieve, letting him rapidly inhale air with the desperation of a drowning man before bringing back the bottle and urging him to drink the rest of it. Tony struggled, coughed the water out, and batted at Steve’s chest to get him to move away.

“I’ve had enough, Rogers!” his voice rasped in his throat, the soothing coolness of the water had done nothing to calm the burning that had spread around inside him. “I had enough… water…” Enough for a lifetime, as far as he was concerned. He turned away from Steve, leaning his weight on his elbow as he wiped his mouth. 

As Tony looked around, he finally realized that he was no longer stranded in the middle of nowhere, instead he was back at the private beach the Avengers settled on earlier that day. He was quite a distance away from the place they set up their beach party, and obscured behind a wall of wave breakers, but he was definitely on the same beach.  Now, it all seemed so long ago even if nothing changed at all –it was still light out– and neither one of the men who came to find him looked overly worried about his disappearance, even Clint thought he was sunbathing…

“How long was I gone?” He said under his breath, his eyes tackling to take in the widespread blue calm sea as terror silently ate away his lucidity. His gaze searched for any miniscule movement, any wave out of place, something that will confirm – or otherwise revoke the integrity of the horrific memory. Tony looked back at Steve when his search yielded nothing, and found him confused.

“Gone? You mean... sunbathing?” He asked, fingers retreating from Tony’s shoulder where he held him, only to return, a little less confident in their grip. Tony shook his head then grabbed at it when it felt like the world would never stop spinning.

“No, I didn’t… I mean I did… just, how long since we talked, Steve?” he asked quietly, “You, you saw me get into the water, right?”

“I… well, that was about an hour ago, Thor spotted you here sunbathing when he flew to get lunch, and we all assumed you wanted to, um, be alone. Since… um…” he gestured his head towards Tony’s towel covered area. “Me and Clint came to call you to come eat with us-“

An hour? That seemed wrong. It couldn’t have been just an hour. It made no sense. He was so far from the shore that he couldn’t even see it... Was-wasn’t he? Maybe with a suit he could go fast enough to get to the middle of the ocean and back in under ten minutes but… And for the rest to make lunch before coming to get him after Thor came back would reduce that time even more.

What happened to him –drowning, losing his consciousness and waking up in the middle of the ocean, getting… violated, raped by a creature he could never describe to himself as a mermaid but had no other name to use– for what felt like hours of slow, burning pain mixed with strange tranquility couldn’t just be a nightmare…

No, it was stupid. They were right- he probably got a sunstroke and hallucinated the entire ordeal. There was no creature, no whales. None of it made any sense, anyway. His aching throat and bloated stomach were just side effects of dehydration, the soreness all over his body, too.

_ Nothing happened. _

Clint came back, a phone dangling between his fingers and a frown on his lips. “You might want to find your bathing suit, Stark. The ambulance is on its way.” He tossed another bottle of water to Steve. “Keep him hydrated so he doesn’t faint again.”

“No thank you-“ Tony murmured helplessly, aware of the fact that Steve was not about to give him any choice in the matter and dreading the existence of water or liquid anywhere near him. The horror he felt at the sight of the bottle, and the sound of the waves did not go away with the acknowledgement of the hallucination that made him fear it so deeply. If anything – it intensified.

He should not have been surprised by it, really – he should have realized that his first time submerged in salt water after Afghanistan would leave a sour taste in his throat and open some festering, untreated wounds. He never imagined it would surface as a heat stroke induced delusion –shaped as a monstrous, nightmare mermaid from some Lovecraftian themed sex fantasy of a depraved mind– but then again, that should not have shocked him too much, either.

It shouldn’t have surprised him that the moment he tasted water on his tongue again –gently forced on him by his worried team-mates– would be the moment he lost his remaining composure all together. He swatted at Steve’s arms and kicked his legs until he was released from the man’s hold, the bottled water spilled onto the sand as he got to his knees and coughed out the foul liquid. He jerked away from Steve’s touch and forced out another cough, trying to get the rest of it out.

“To-“

“No- No! Stop!…” Tony’s voice was shaky, but the turn of his head towards his teammates was sharp and steady; he was determined. “Stop… doing that. I’ll…” he couldn’t stomach it, and his body knew that. Steve and Clint both looked at him like he was mad, pitifully so. “I’m fine. I can... just leave me alone!”

He made an effort to get up, his head was still spinning but he wasn’t dizzy any longer. He held on to the towel and didn’t sway off his feet as he expected was going to happen, and all things considered,he didn’t even feel as bad as he thought he did. He could stand, and his mind was relatively clear. He felt a little nauseated, but now that the bottled water was away from him, his stomach seemed to settle down.

“Call off the ambulance,” He said, looking back at the two men, both of whom stared at him like he was going to topple down at any moment. He scoffed at them. “You are making a big deal out of nothing, okay? I feel better!” Neither of them looked convinced, Clint held on to the cellphone like it was the most important thing to him on earth.

Steve clenched his jaw and moved to grab at him, a gesture Tony reacted to with a hard stare and an evasive maneuver Steve could probably block if he really wanted to, but did not. “Tony, you have to get looked at.”

“Yeah, no kidding Rogers. I’ll have Jarvis run a body scan and call my doctor over if there’s anything wrong when I get home.” A pause, Tony lowered his eyes under Steve’s hardened stare. “Which… I intend to go do right now...and all of you should, too.” He sighed and tied the towel around his waist more securely. “I can tell Jarvis to make arrangements for you at a nearby hotel or you can go back to New York or wherever else you want to go, I–I’m sorry I ruined the vacation.”

Surprisingly, or maybe not so much, Steve did not try to stop him as he walked away. Tony could still feel Steve’s gaze burrowing into his back, while Clint begrudgingly made the call to cancel the ambulance service. 

As he walked, his back turned to the sea and his mind lingering on the disappointment on his teammates faces, his hand moved almost unconsciously, reluctantly, to his stomach once more.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *IMPORTANT PLEASE READ*
> 
> HEEEEY look I actually didn't abandon this??  
> amazing.
> 
> Well, Hi.  
> so there's a new chapter. that's cool.
> 
> it took a long time, and I'm really really excited about this happening  
> as I've mentioned before, I'm a student with nearly zero free time for personal projects, so getting this done was not easy, but I'm really glad I did it.
> 
> I've heavily edited the previous chapters and had the story Beta'd by the amazing Serinah and NerdCat who both had done a wonderful job and helped me a LOT, so please send them good vibes and a lot of love.
> 
> I really recommend reading the story from the beginning again for the edits :) and to jog your memory too since it's been... a year since the last update. oops.  
> aaand that's it? please enjoy, and fear not - there's at least one more chapter before I leave you for another year ;)

The more Tony thought about what happened, the less it made sense. The time frame didn’t fit, there were no visible wounds anywhere on his person, and even Jarvis, in his rudimentary, basic scan done the moment Tony got home, could find nothing wrong.

There was a general ache all over his body, and a heavy feeling in his stomach that just refused to go away but excluding that and the shrapnel in his chest, he was completely healthy. Jarvis could not detect any signs of mythical creatures manifesting specifically to use him as a masturbatory plaything –and surprisingly enough, there were no signs of a heatstroke or dehydration either.

“You are the perfect picture of health, sir.” Were Jarvis’ exact words. Tony couldn’t say he felt like it, but it was good to know that it was all in his head, rather than something actually wrong with him.

The exhaustion roaming through all his limbs convinced him that sleep, rather than food or a bath to wash off sand and salt from his skin, was everything he needed. In fact, he could barely keep his eyes open and his legs dragged under him as he tried to get himself over to his bedroom. Soon, he gave up and practically passed out on the sofa, with the towel around his hips slipping away to the floor and revealing his nakedness, but he could care less about his nakedness. He was just so tired, and it was his home. He could sleep naked on the sofa if that’s what he wanted to do. In the blink of an eye, his eyelids dropped closed before he managed to lean down comfortably on the leather-clad surface of the sofa.

The whales returned.

It was like they never left, soft and comforting in the back of his mind, singing a harmonious tune that called for him. He belonged with them now, he belonged to them, and he knew that he carried them inside him now as a reminder of what he was; What he would be. The whales sang, lulling away the hint of panic that his mind tried to generate about the intrusion.

His stomach was on fire. It was sudden and there was no warning before the heat ignited under his skin. He gasped as air did not arrive to his lungs, and  his entire body convulsed in pain as the heat kept increasing. It was changing something inside him: he could feel it –could feel the rearrangement of his organs so clearly– and when he moved his hands to his stomach he could feel small changes of shape and size as things got pushed around.                                                     

The whale song drowned out his screams, overpowering the sounds of distress as his own nails dug into the skin of his stomach and hips, trying to rip it away to get to the source of the burning, and get everything back to where it was meant to be.

Then, as sudden as it began, it stopped.

All of it, from the burning to the song in his head, it all stopped at once – leaving behind a silence that only the dead could bear, and cold that had him shaking violently, craving the heat from before. He was trapped in this nightmare, all too aware of it being a dream and yet unable to open his eyes to wake up. The notion of waking up felt too terrifying. If he opened his eyes would he see the two pools of the darkest black, nestled in a monstrous face, swirling? Would he be dragged down, breathless under the heavy weight of water?

Tony’s breathe hitched, his chest constricted. He curled around himself, nails digging into the flesh of his forearms, trying to bring them even closer together. He longed for the whales to return, if only to drive away the sense of loneliness that settled in his chest once they left. The moisture of tears breached his closed eyelids and his body curled tighter, shivering from the cold.

Tony wasn’t sure if he was dreaming or not, anymore.

Morning brought with it harsh sunbeams that shone through the glass windows of his home, the unpleasant sensation of sweaty skin rubbing against leather, and Jarvis’ voice reading aloud the weather forecast. Opening his eyes slowly, Tony found himself hugging his knees to his chest. There were red, blotchy scratch marks and deep crescent shapes decorating his skin where he sunk his nails into it during the night. The exhaustion and ache still lingered.

He unfolded his body, slowly moving to sit up. Looking down his naked body, he found more evidence of self-harm – scratches, some deeper than others, along his hips and thighs and at any spot that burned in his dream during the night.

He let out a shuddery breath as the horror of the dream came back in flashes, letting his hand stroke down the abused skin as if it was not his own, looking for anything irregular, a bump, a dip – it was ridiculous and it was just a dream, but it felt so real; The pain and the burning inside him all felt so real.

“Jarvis… I…” he closed his eyes. “Cancel everything, Jarvis, I am taking a sick day.”

“Of course, Sir. Should I notify your Doctor?”

Tony hesitated, hand gliding across the abused skin. _Something_ was wrong with him, but something has been wrong with him since New York. Nightmares were just nightmares. His existential crisis wasn’t something that medication could fix.

“No… no. It’s fine. I just need to rest.” He bit out just before Jarvis could repeat the question. Locking himself in the workshop seemed like a perfectly valid coping mechanism. Maybe it was time he created a deep-sea suit. A perfectly portable armor, easy to deploy underwater, complete with electrical deterrents. Yeah. That sounded like a perfectly good idea.

He spent the next hour in his bathroom, skin tingling when he asked Jarvis to turn on the hot water and then just stood there, staring as the stream of water started flowing down the drain. He wanted to wash out the salt from his hair, the remains of sand crusting over his skin, he wanted to wash away the hazy memory of monstrous hands and black eyes roaming his body, puncturing him wherever they went.

But, he couldn’t bring himself to step under the water.

When he finally gave up, tears of frustration found their way from his eyes. In the end, he stepped out of the bathroom, still covered in salt and sand.

After getting dressed in soft, not entirely lab-safe clothes, Tony made himself forget his frustration and the uncomfortable feeling of filth all over him by  heading down to his workshop, andletting Dum-E fuss over him. When Tony drank the questionable green goo the bot prepared in the smoothie maker as he worked, it didn’t taste as bad as it usually did, considering its seaweed-y ingredients the bot always somehow managed to find and pour in despite Tony’s attempts at hiding the damn thing.

Pepper called around noon, snapping Tony out of his nearly trance-like state working on the plans for the new suit. She wasn’t angry, per se, annoyed and worried was more like it, and perhaps a little more than usual.

“The last thing I expected to get today was a call from _Captain America,_ of all people, telling me to check up on you.” She said, her tone calm with an edge of something terrifying, “And then I find out you cancelled all our appointments today and took a sick day. But you don’t even bother to call me? What am I supposed to think, Tony?”

He holds in a sigh, “I… I zoned out.” He mutters, “it’s nothing serious, Pep. I just…”

“With your record, ‘nothing serious’ might as well be bleeding out on your floor. Do I need to get Happy to check up on you?”

Tony blinked, suddenly exhausted again. “Nope. All okay here. No bleeding.”

Pepper kept quiet for a moment. “Did you have a fight with Captain Rogers?” she asked, her voice gaining a softer quality – almost apologetic, and definitely pitying. “is that why… do you need me to come over? Don’t say no.”

He was so tired, he barely grasped the meaning of Pepper’s words. What she thought happened... “That- wait, what? no, we haven’t…” he knew it was meaningless, she’d already made the decision to come over, which meant she was booking a flight as soon as the conversation was over. “it’s not about Steve, Pep. I just needed some me time.”

It was a dumb excuse, certainly not one his intelligent friend would accept, certainly not when his voice turned quiet mid-sentence.

He bit his lip, maybe having Pepper over would be a good thing, maybe she could help make some sense of the dreams and-

“Tony?” her voice was soft, and he realized he had zoned out again, completely missing what she had been saying in response to his excuse. “I won’t come if you don’t want me to, but please don’t tell me everything is fine when it clearly isn’t.”

“You are a treasure, Pep. But there’s really nothing for you to do here.” He finally said, “I promise.”

He could still hear the reservation in her voice when she acknowledged him and bid him farewell. He knew there was not much he could do to keep her from getting on a plane and, even worse than that, make Rhodey come back from his mission specifically to take a peek into Tony’s life and steer him in the right direction. It was a bittersweet kind of feeling, having friends who cared about him only to disappoint them time after time. He didn’t deserve them.

Once Jarvis shut down the voice channel, Tony’s muscles lost all of its tension. His head felt airy and he slid down to the cluttered floor, holding on the table’s edge to keep himself from falling further. Dum-E chirped in the distance, but was concealed by the smoky layer that crept into his mind, and in seconds the haze  had isolated his mind entirely.

His skin pinpricked with goosebumps and he shivered.Even though he felt boneless and there was barely any strength left in his muscles, he still managed to curl his legs closer to his body in a semi-fetal position.

“Jarvis…” he wasn’t sure if his voice even materialized audibly at all. “Something… something is not okay with me.” He blinked slowly, he was not sure what he’d been saying – the fog in his mind made thinking too hard, too much of an effort. He could just relax, just let himself let go and lay down comfortably. Wouldn’t that be something, now? His head dropped down, eyes too foggy to register the sight of the cluttered floor and crumpled designs at his feet.

He couldn’t hear Jarvis’ reply, if there even was one. If Jarvis wasn’t alarmed, it meant nothing bad was happening. He was okay... The whales were back –he was okay.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoops, a week passed, and here's another chapter!  
> It's a rather short one and might be the last for quite some time, so I'm leaving you with a bit of a cliff-hanger. I'm nice like that.
> 
> a lot of love to NerdCat who Beta'd and made this readable!!  
> Enjoy!

Three long nights, each with its own version of the terrifyingly real nightmare brought on by exhaustion. Tony tried not to fall asleep, he drank obscene amounts of coffee, which after a while started to taste bland, but still it was entirely ineffective at keeping him awake. Jarvis kept insisting all was well with the scan, even the blood tests he did came back looking well enough for any man his age.

The nightmares still came anyways. The whales didn’t care that he was supposed to be okay and pumped full of caffeine -they came anyway- they lulled him as his body, in the dreams, was burning and changing in unknown ways. 

Yet Jarvis still said the scans were normal.

“So – you understand why I really don’t need you to stay here and mother me, right?” Tony said as he pulled on a simple, but softly lined shirt and trousers from his drawer. Keeping his gaze away from Steve and Natasha who somehow found their way into his room despite all of the security protocols, which he was going to have to check.  Natasha might have left back-door exploits when she spied on him for SHIELD. Can’t trust anyone, these days.

Steve sighed, basically oozing with disapproval, and Tony could feel Natasha’s eyes boring holes into his back with her super-observant magic stare, that he was rather sure was as much of a super-power as Cap’s own super-strength. He didn’t turn to look at them.

Tony knew he stank. He was still unable to get himself under a shower head, and was using dry shampoo instead of washing his hair. It worked well enough to keep it from going too greasy, but the grime on his skin and the smell were only two things that were indicative of his state.

He also didn’t really care.

They were in his safe place –in his  _ bedroom _ – without his permission. He was not going to dignify that breach of privacy with any molecule of courtesy.

“We looked for your surfing board and bathing suit, but we couldn’t find them anywhere.” Natasha said in a quiet, soothing voice. “You left the beach in a hurry. We were just concerned for you.”

“A-ha. Look, I’m fine. I lost them when I went swimming.” When the merman pulled him away from his board and whisked him away into the dark depths of hell– “You didn’t have to follow me here and play mind games with me.”

The heavy presence of Steve’s approaching body caused him to turn just as the super-soldier reached out to grab at his shoulder, it made his skin tingle all over with an unfamiliar alertness, and he flinched away from Steve’s approaching hand with an aggravated hiss. It surprised both of his home intruders and himself, when the sound made its way out from between his teeth, wild and nearly inhuman.

Steve took a step back, but Tony just stood there, a hand over his mouth whilst the other hand traced the hem of his shirt nervously. The quiet between them was broken by a huff of air leaving Natasha’s mouth as she took a step forward to where Steve stood before.

“Tony,” with his name uttered softly, she approached him and Tony found himself struggling not to make a break for it through the nearest door. The alarming tingle spread like fire all over his skin when her eyes captured his gaze.  _ Danger...She’s dangerous… get away!….  _ He stayed put, swallowing to ease the dryness of his throat when her fingers found his arm. “Whatever happened, if it could be a threat, don’t you think we should know about it?”

Was a horny sea monster a threat?

_ Not if it’s not real. _

Tony adopted a teeth-baring, predatory smile he would normally save for board meetings and hostile reporters at press conferences, and to keep her from studying his expression he turned away before he responded.

“Nothing happened. I’m fine.” He said, turning his back toward them. Natasha let go of his arm and moved back. “I’m just tired, and hungry. I get cranky like an old lady when I don’t eat, you know that.”

Amazingly enough, just as he spoke Tony’s stomach rumbled with perfect timing, and he realized he might not have been exactly lying to his team-mates. The heaviness of his stomach stayed the same but at the same time the desire to fill it attacked him in waves, each worse than the last. He was famished, starved worse than he ever was. He had to find food right away!

Tony pushed between his teammates, creating a path leading away from their uninvited scrutiny and straight to the kitchen, knowing it would be fully stocked for the benefit of the staff and occasional visitors. He never cooked, but Pepper sometimes liked to, and while Rhodey enjoyed ordering take out and staying up all night for their movie nights, he also liked to make huge, luxurious breakfasts that he learned from his mother. He pulled Tony into that tradition, too, but could never quite have him figure out how to perfectly fry an egg.

Tony’s stomach growled loudly, it had never made sounds like that, before. Or maybe it did and he never noticed? He couldn’t recall a time when he felt this hungry, even sitting with Yinsen in that cave, never knowing when their next meal was going to be, never left him feeling so empty and needy for food.

He ignored the footsteps behind him and made a beeline straight to the fridge, it was fully stocked with fresh ingredients, but nothing looked very appetizing when he considered it. He soon abandoned the fridge and started opening the cupboards one by one, his stomach growled again but despite the raging hunger he could not settle on anything he laid his eyes on. The frustration he felt earlier, in the bathroom, reared its ugly head again. He was so hungry that his stomach started hurting, and there was nothing he could eat. Nothing he could use to sate himself.

Steve and Natasha found him sitting on the floor surrounded by discarded items of food, a sob tearing its way out of his throat. He felt awful, and there was no use trying to hide it from either of them. Natasha helped him get up, not questioning his nervous breakdown although he did catch her glancing at Steve, gesturing at him in their secret spy sign language he was never privy to. He didn’t see Steve’s response, but the super soldier started to tidy up the ransacked kitchen soon after, while Natasha led Tony to his living room and sat him down, letting him curl into a ball with his back turned to her. His breath labored as the pain in his stomach turned even more potent. His head became fuzzy with the constant craving for substance. He needed food desperately. He was so, so hungry.

“There is something going on. Jarvis says-“ Tony opened his eyes slowly, the feeling of hunger never went away, but it turned into a dull ache in his stomach. His mouth felt dry and his throat was parched. They had tried to feed him when he told them he couldn’t find anything to eat, Steve gave him a stink eye for it too, considering how well stocked the kitchen was. Tony knew he was being ridiculous, he knew that there was enough food in that kitchen to feed a family for a least a year. Shame danced around in the back of his mind but was quickly overwhelmed by the hunger and frustration that came with it. He wanted to eat. He needed to eat…

The sandwich Steve made him nearly caused him to throw up, Natasha’s fruit smoothie was slightly easier to swallow, but left a sour taste in his mouth and did nothing to sate him.

“Jarvis says there’s nothing wrong, but there clearly is something. I don’t know! He should see an actual professional.”

No. there was nothing wrong with him. He was just hungry. He just had to eat. Why couldn’t they understand? Why wouldn’t they give him what he needed?

_ His mate would’ve given him what he needed. _

Tony sat up, eyes wide. The thought lingered in his mind. Just like the hunger, it suddenly became a permanent fixture. Where did it come from?

He felt Natasha’s delicate fingers drawing circles on his back but couldn’t let himself relax under the sensation of it. The tension caused by the constant presence of those... thoughts in his head was maddening. He was so hungry. His mate would have fed him, if he was here. If Tony went back to him.

Which he couldn’t do. Because it wasn’t real.


End file.
